By Kudakwashe Pembere
In a case anticipated to set an important legal precedent on maternal and reproductive health rights for incarcerated women in Zimbabwe, a pregnant inmate is asking the High Court to compel the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) to appoint a dedicated gynaecologist for Chikurubi Female Prison within seven days and ensure the specialist is regularly available to attend to pregnant inmates. Melissa Messe Chiyangwa is also seeking a declaration that the conduct of Chikurubi Female Prison Officer in Charge Moses Chihobvu, the ZPCS Commissioner-General, and the Sister In Charge, who allegedly denied her access to a private doctor at her own expense, is unconstitutional.
Chiyangwa, arrested on June 23, 2025 on theft charges, lodged the application at the Harare High Court on Friday, August 1, through her lawyers from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), Tinashe Chinopfukutwa and Kelvin Kabaya.
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She made these demands in an urgent application calling for the improvement of maternal health services at ZPCS health facilities. In her court papers, Chiyangwa says she is pregnant and classified as high-risk, but has been denied access to proper antenatal care.
“Chiyangwa wants the High Court to issue an order directing ZPCS to assign and appoint a gynaecologist for Chikurubi Female Prison within seven days of the granting of the court order and to ensure that the gynaecologist is regularly present to attend to discharging his or her duties,” read a tweet from ZLHR. “The prisoner wants the High Court to declare the conduct of the Officer In Charge at Chikurubi Female Prison, Moses Chihobvu, the Commissioner-General of ZPCS and the Sister In Charge at Chikurubi Female Prison and their subordinates, of denying pregnant inmates access to their private doctors at their own expense, as unlawful and a breach of the inmates’ right to communicate or be visited by their chosen medical practitioner as provided under section 50(5)(c)(v) of the Constitution and of their right to access basic reproductive health services guaranteed under section 76(1) of the Constitution.
Added ZLHR, “Chiyangwa also contends that such conduct is a violation of section 50(5)(d) of the Constitution, which provides for the rights of prisoners to be detained in conditions of detention that are consistent with human dignity with the provision of adequate medical treatment at the state’s expense and which would imply the provision of adequate maternal health facilities to be utilised while under detention.”
According to Chiyangwa, prison guards at Chikurubi told her that pregnant inmates can only attend antenatal visits on Tuesdays, a day that consistently clashes with her court appearances. No alternative arrangements were offered.
When she was finally taken to Parirenyatwa Hospital on July 29, she said a doctor flagged concerns of excessive amniotic fluid and ordered immediate scans. However, she was returned to prison without receiving the scans because the machines at the hospital were not functional. She was told to return on August 6. “
The prisoner said she was advised by some Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) guards at Chikurubi Female Prison that pregnant inmates are only taken to Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare and they are not permitted to have access to their private doctors and private maternal facilities and was further advised that pregnant inmates are only taken to Parirenyatwa Hospital for delivery only when the pains of labour commence and not necessarily on the scheduled date for the C-section.
Chiyangwa said since 26 June 2025, which was the scheduled visit of her gynaecologist, she was neither allowed access to her gynaecologist nor taken to Parirenyatwa Hospital. “ZPCS, Chiyangwa said, advised her that prison guards could not take her to Parirenyatwa Hospital because ante-natal visits to the state-run hospital are only done on Tuesday, and those Tuesdays were clashing with her court session dates. No alternative arrangement to take her on a different day was made.
“At Chikurubi Female Prison Clinic, Chiyangwa said, nurses only prescribe paracetamol whenever she experiences frequent and severe back pains, which is against the advice of her gynaecologist, who clearly stated that she must be managed and attended to by a specialist doctor and not nurses.
“The prisoner said she was only taken to Parirenyatwa Hospital on 29 July 2025, where she was attended to by a doctor who recommended that she should immediately go for scans at the state-run hospital, which could not be done as the machines were broken down, and she was taken back to Chikurubi Female Prison after being advised to return on 6 August 2025 despite the doctor, who examined her at Parirenyatwa Hospital, expressing concerns that she may have excessive amniotic fluid in her body,” said ZHLR.
